


Order from chaos

by Querion



Series: Hope [1]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Brutal kidnap, Eventual steamy sex, F/F, Female Friendship, Friendship/Love, Grief/Mourning, Love Confessions, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-05 23:49:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17928692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Querion/pseuds/Querion
Summary: This story is set in AU where Kathryn Janeway is a brilliant and famous aeronautics engineer living in the 21st century and works for NASA. She makes a breakthrough in building the world`s first space folding engine which enables space shuttles to travel to Mars and back in one month. Things get weird when she disappears one night and is found in a remote region of the Amazon rain forest a week later left for dead. She is rescued but in the process the doctor is unable to save some of her internal organs. She has a double mastectomy and loses her uterus, not before her skilled doctor saves all her ovaries. Her outrageous claims surrounding her disappearance attract the media`s attention. While going through recovery and depression a cool and aloof fellow engineer, Annika Hansen, becomes Janeway`s regular visitor at home. Hansen`s dry humour and calm demeanor fascinates the engineer, to such an extent that they become friends and eventually more. While all this is happening Q (Quentin) intervenes because he loves Kathy.





	1. Missing engineer

**Author's Note:**

> Voyager`s characters are the ones mostly featured in the story but their jobs may or may not be slightly different to accommodate and reflect today`s professions.
> 
> I would like to apologize in advance that Kathryn`s situation may bring very unpleasant memories for some readers. It is rated Explicit for this reason and i`ve decided to emphasize it here just in case some readers miss the archive warning and the tags. Please consider this before proceeding to read the story.
> 
> I hope you like the story. Do tell me what you think and please don`t forget to leave me a kudos :)

" _This is mystifying. Kathryn is never late for work."_ Annika said as she sat at a desk next to her friend, B`Elanna Torres. The two never really got along well in the beginning, when Hansen first joined Kathryn`s Janeway`s team of scientists working on a model of the first space folding engine. Kathryn Janeway played a large part in uniting the two, tried to bring the best out of them. Painfully and slowly, months later, the two women finally decided to call a truce.

_"You know i would have said, in your opinion Kathryn is never late for work, but i hate to agree that you`re right!  Being a Monday she may just be suffering from a massive hangover, or she may have had a lover over and...you know.."_ Torres left her sentence incomplete causing Hansen to raise an eye brow.

_"No, i do not know but i was hoping you would tell me."_ The tall blonde woman said a bit too forcefully which in turn caused her colleague to raise her eye brow.

 

Their bantering was cut short when Peter Chakotay walked into the Propulsion Laboratory and went straight to stand in front. He looked back to the rows of desks and saw that the whole team was present sans Kathryn Janeway the team leader. Peter thought that was strange as Kathryn Janeway was never late for work. The woman was such a workaholic that one day she came to work as sick as a dog, suffering from a cold and still managed to get the day`s assignments completed. Chakotay decided to give Janeway a few more minutes before he started the meeting. Being second in command of the project, the man was ordered by Kathryn to get things going even when she was absent. However, during the presentation describing how successful their project was and stating the next phase, Torres interrupted him. She had secretly bugged the project leader`s landline so she could spy on Janeway who was her secret crush. Torres was romantically involved with Tom Paris. Her recent discovery that she was romantically attracted to both men and women, a secret she kept to herself, Torres had come to what she convinced herself as a therapeutic act, built a bugging system and placed it in Kathryn`s phone. Torres had placed the device in Kathryn`s house in Washington, D.C. in one of the get together activities the team regularly had at each others` houses. Torres had to agree that Kathryn`s life was as boring as watching paint dry. She was sure Janeway was either aware of the secret listening device in her phone and took it out or she had an extremely dull life. Two days previously, however, as B`Elanna participated in her illicit pass time activity of listening in on the project manager`s home phone, she heard noises. Unfortunately Torres had to rush to work and had not completed downloading the sounds she heard onto her own mobile phone, so she took it with her to work, like everybody else did. As she currently got absorbed in playing back the phone sounds she thought she heard something interesting.

 

**THROUGH JANEWAY`S HACKED HOME PHONE**

Person (or people) 1: _Come on, let us go before we get caught!_

Person (or people) 2:  _Get up, female. Your career as you know it is over. We want to go home. Your machine will help us do that. Resistance is futile!_

Woman`s voice:  _Over my dead cold hands! Who are you people? What do you want from me? What are those cybernetic enhancements on your bodies? Are you aliens of some kind? No! Leave me alone! I am not going with you!...._ Then there was static then silence.

 

Back in the present, B`Elanna Torres` eyes grew wider as a reaction to what she was hearing. She wondered whether Kathryn was involved in some sort of sex kink or bdsm? She dismissed that thought as absurd, that Kathryn Janeway did not seem to be into that sort of activity, but again who was she to judge anyone? She herself was into that sort of thing and she has fantasized involving Kathryn Janeway into them.

" _Torres, care to share?"_ Peter Chakotay`s voice broke the smirking woman`s reverie. The olive skinned beauty looked up and frowned at the project`s second in command. She always saw him as her own brother. For the seven years they had worked together Chakotay had readily offered her good advice when she needed it. He was the one responsible for helping her admit to herself that she was romantically attracted to both men and women. 

_"I`m sorry, Peter, but i think something is very wrong. Kathryn Janeway is never coming to work. I think she has been kidnapped!"_ Torres blurted out.

 

The whole team looked at Torres wondering what she was talking about but in just a few seconds they all agreed that one strange thing stood out. Kathryn Janeway was late and that she was never late for work.

 

_"Could you run that by me, again?"_

_"I mean...it doesn`t matter, Chakotay. We need to go to Janeway`s house and call the police!"_ The agitated woman was half shouting now. She paced the floor with her hands folded at the chest and her head down in concentration. Chakotay and Annika Hansen walked towards their agitated colleague and held her both by her shoulders to make her still. Torres looked at them as if not recognizing who they were. Should she tell them what she had done to Kathryn`s phone and why? Her secrets will be out if she did but then Kathryn`s rescue, if she was really captured, could very well depend on the information on the secret listening device. What was she going to do? B`Elanna panicked.

 

B`Elanna Torres told the team what she overheard on the device and agreed to listen to share the information to investigators if needed in the future. The team jumped into a NASA van and headed off to Kathryn`s Janeway`s house. The front door was locked. Torres shamefully produced a key and unlocked the project manager`s door. Inside, the group found some of Kathryn`s project paper she had printed over the weekend on the floor. Other than that the living room seemed undisturbed. Annika walked into a bedroom and found shoes displaced from a shoe rack, or so she thought. The shoes could have been displaced or Kathryn could have simply not put them on the rack in the first place. She smirked to herself and walked further into the large bedroom. The wardrobe was wide open, the bed was unmade with sheets and pillows on the floor. Annika felt tears sowly trickle down her face. She slowly massaged the only pillow on the bed which had Kathryn`s scent and took a deep breath in. Hansen closed her eyes, trying to imagine Kathryn Janeway lying on the bed and relaxed. Her eyes flew open with shock and outrage at herself when she realized what she was doing. She was fantasizing about Kathryn Janeway in a romantic manner and to make things worse she may have contaminated the area investigators will surely be interested to investigate. What a mess, Annika thought to herself and quickly walked out of the room to join Tuvok and Paris in their kitchen and bathroom investigation but they did not find any clues there. Harry reported nothing unusual in the other two bedrooms upstairs. The team did not touch anything for fear of contaminating evidence.

 

Once back at the propulsion laboratory the group talked about what to tell investigators and whether they should leave some facts out. The whole thing was quickly getting out of hand and beyond Chakotay`s and the group`s depth. How do they tell investigators that a colleague secretly planted a listening device in another colleague`s phone for some unknown reason and the colleague suddenly disappears, seemingly out of trace.

 

Peter Chakotay informed the police department who immediately went to Kathyn Janeway`s house. Once the project team had given their statements they were allowed to go. Chakotay dismissed the group as none of them seemed interested in working that day. It was as if a large hole was dug into the very fabric of their bond with Kathryn Janeway.

 

 


	2. Where am i?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janeway finds herself in an unfamiliar world full of mechanical things. Mechanical people follow some strict guidelines to avoid contact with inferior races.
> 
> The mechanical people`s leader asks help from Kathryn Janeway.

Green lights and crackling sounds as energy traversed through black cables greeted Kathryn Janeway when she became conscious of her surroundings. She blinked several times as an attempt at making her eyes adjust to the eerie green lights. She was lying face down on the floor of a big dimly lit cavernous area which looked like a cargo container. Nobody seemed to be around. She tried to sit up but realized that her arms were tied at the back causing her to lose her balance and fall face down again. She tasted metal in her mouth and suspected that she may have a bleeding lip.

 _"Damn! I`ve always wanted to go somewhere exotic but this isn`t what i had in mind. Care to show yourself? I asked you before, who are you people and what do you want from me?"_ She was greeted by silence but she noted that her voice carried which meant that her captors probably heard her but somehow they were unwilling to talk to her yet. Kathryn Janeway had read crime thriller story novels before and she was aware that captors usually left their captives alone to try and intimidate and cause panic in their victims. It was a psychological tactic. She was also aware that those were just fictional scenarios but could it work in real life? Janeway was a curious person. She had always been fascinated with science. Her curiosity and the interest to find out why things acted or behaved the way they did made her into one of the greatest scientists and engineer of the century. Unfortunately her curiosity was also her greatest weakness. Sometimes she did not know when to stop when it came to investigating phenomena. Kathryn remembered when she was fifteen years old she wanted to produce methane gas which could be used as a source of energy. Young Kathryn had been waking up early in the morning to clear cow dung in her mother`s cows enclosure back on the farm in Bloomington, Indiana. Kathryn`s mother, Gretchen Janeway, was surprised at her daughter`s sudden interest in the cows but suspected that it was just a phase. Gretchen did not know how else to explain the strange phenomenon that was her daughter`s behaviour. A week later, Gretchen had decided to ask Kathryn what her motivation to clean the area was as her younger sister, Phoebe, would not do it when asked. Kathryn had smiled and just told Gretchen that it was a secret. In reality Janeway collected cow dung and placed it in a large drums so she could process it to produce methane gas. She had succeeded but at the cost of burning up the cows` enclosure and half of her mother`s barn. It was not one of her proudest moments. However, Gretchen thought how ingenious her daughter was and encouraged her to do more "safe science." 

 

Back in the present, Kathryn Janeway was still lying on the floor, face down and unable to re-position herself in any way. After a while, she did not know how long, she felt footsteps approaching from one of the possible numerous corridors. She did not know how she knew this but from an engineering point of view Janeway surmised that the cavernous bay should be linked to another one or possibly several others via corridors of whatever "cargo container" she was in. The footsteps approached her position then stopped. At the periphery of her vision, Kathryn saw what looked like strange skeletal feet which seemed to double up as booted feet, from lack of a better description of them.

 _"Get up. We must take you to the Queen."_ The weirdly human voices were heard. What was puzzling to Kathryn was the fact that they sounded to be talking in unison yet she could swear that only one or a couple of the beings were in the room with her.

" _The Queen, huh? Well, tell her Majesty that i`m a little tied up at the moment, but_ _if you untie me then i`ll manage to stand up and go see your Majesty."_ Janeway said hoarsely. Her throat was dry. She was thirsty and her whole body ached. She was uncomfortable but she felt her sarcasm poke its head out and overtake her sense of logic. She was not afraid of these beings, merely curious about them and she supposed they were as curious about her too. Somehow Janeway thought that she was caught up in a sort of trance or nightmare where she could not wake up. Or maybe the whole thing was people playing a prank on her while wearing costumes. That or she may be dead and in the afterlife but the discomforts she felt were very real to her and brought her out of her reverie.

" _This is sarcasm. It is irrelevant. We must purge it out of you. We only require your knowledge of the engine that will enable us to travel home."_ The beings said in unison.

" _Then take me to your Queen."_ Janeway said and she felt two cold rough hands lift her up from under her arms. She stood up supported by the beings and for the first time she saw them in their true form. Janeway silently gasped as one cybernetic being untied her arms and started massage to encourage blood flow. The action was done in a crude and mechanical way, almost in a robotic fashion. Kathryn stood obediently, tolerating the action, not that she could do anything to resist anything. 

 

The NASA engineer was led out of the cavernous bay flanked by two tall beings. Could they be costumes? Janeway had no way of knowing this, she was merely speculating. The trio walked into a corridor which was also dimly lit in green just like the room they had just vacated. Numerous corridors, bends and twists later, they arrived in an even bigger, dimly lit room. As the trio stood waiting, Kathryn was not sure what they were waiting for then finally she saw it. In the middle of the cavernous bay, were strange machines she had never seen before. There were four long metallic looking beams which extended from the floor all the way to the roof. Suddenly a woman`s bust complete with a dangling spine descended from the roof between the four metal beams. Once it was on the ground the floor opened up to bring up a pair of skeletal legs which attached themselves to the torso. Black cables were attached to her skull which looked like a hairstyle Janeway sometimes see people wear. Finally the female being smiled and started to walk towards Kathryn Janeway.

 _"Greetings, Kathryn Janeway of Earth and NASA. I am the Borg Queen. We want the knowledge you possess. It will help us get home."_ The female being said. It still smiled seductively which was a bit unsettling to Kathryn.

" _Why does everybody say that i have the knowledge to get them home? What are you talking about and who are you?"_ Janeway was getting impatient with the charades these, whoever they were, were playing.

 _"We are the Borg. We crashed landed on a hot and sandy area of your planet. Then we moved to this thickly vegetated region of your world to conceal ourselves from you. Your people have not mastered the art of space travel so we avoided direct contact with them and we have been stranded here for six months. I have lost many drones as we lack enough energy to sustain the drones. We have scanned your whole world and have deduced that you are most intelligent life form here. Help us and we will leave."_ The Queen said in a cool tone, without inflection or emotion.

_"You`re the Burg?  You don`t sound Swedish."_

_"Sarcasm does not suit you, Kathryn Janeway of Earth and NASA. We will take what we need and leave."_ Janeway heard the Queen say. Her pale gray skin reflected the green lights off her body giving it a shiny look.

" _How are you going to take an engine that has not been invented yet? Come to think of it, all this talk is making me thirsty and giving me a headache. Do you have any bottled water?"_ Kathryn watched in fascination as the Borg woman slightly tilted her head sideways then resumed facing the Earth engineer.

" _It is done."_ The Queen said and waited.

 

Two drones entered the Queen`s chamber pushing a small green cart. On it was large bottle of water and a tray of food. One being pushed the trolley towards Kathryn and stood back waiting with the Queen.

" _Thanks."_ Janeway said and sat down on the floor to start eating while the three beings stood and waited for her to finish. Janeway would have laughed at the strangely funny situation she found herself in but she did not. She concentrated on eating the spaghetti and meatballs. She did not want to know where the food came from. Right then self preservation was more important than humour.

  


	3. Mother`s reaction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janeway`s family reacts to Kathryn`s disappearance. Phoebe joins her sister`s colleagues in their unofficial investigative efforts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos :) Kudos and comments are the reason i sit at the computer and have the courage to complete a story. They`re much appreciated. 
> 
> Hold on to your seats, we`ll get there :)

_"What do you mean Kathryn is missing?!"_ Phoebe, Kathryn`s younger sister lashed out at the young investigator. She had no patience for incompetent officers. Of course the officer, who was now at the mercy of the younger Janeway`s fury, had moved out of range of the woman. He was now standing safely behind an older investigator. The older man, Inspector Collins Blue, was talking quietly with Gretchen Janeway. He reassured her that his team will do everything in their power and expertise to find out the circumstances surrounding Kathryn`s disappearance and promised to update her on their progress.

_"Thank you, Investigator Blue. I will be waiting to hear from you."_ Gretchen walked indoors with as much grace as she could muster and headed straight to her room. She threw herself on the bed, face down, and sobbed her heart out. Her Kathryn was gone and from what she gathered from the two investigators, which was not much information at all, caused her much grief. Gretchen was no stranger to grief and distress. She lost her husband, Edward, a captain of the American Airlines, to a plane crash ten years ago. She was a very confident and had a strong personality but even the strong had no immunity against grief.

 

Phoebe walked in and saw her mother go to her bedroom. She knew that she was crying. Phoebe had seen her mother cry only twice. When Edward died and the current situation. She angrily wiped tears off her eyes and decided to be strong for her mother. She would do her own investigation. Phoebe sat at the kitchen table in her mother`s house and was sipping on her coffee. Unlike her older sister Kathryn, Phoebe drank sweetened white coffee. She analyzed every aspect of the conversation she heard between Investigator Collins Blue and her mother to try and pick up some clues. Blue mentioned an unknown gang of possibly high intellect may be involved. The information was taken from the listening device which picked up the altercation leading to Janeway`s kidnap. Phoebe played the whole dialogue in her mind churning it around for possible clues. The young woman was no investigator. She was an artist but was as curious as her older sister, in a different sort of way, one could say that the two sisters were similar but also at the opposite ends of the same spectrum. They seemed to look at the same things differently and also in a similar way.

 

_"Come on, let us go before we get caught!_

_"Get up, female. Your career as you know it is over. We want to go home. Your machine will help us do that. Resistance is futile!"_

 

Phoebe thought she found a number of clues. The people who kidnapped her sister sounded male, probably a mysogynist bunch as they addressed Janeway as "female." The lack of inflection or accent in their tone could mean that they were not from around town, probably from far away. Another country, perhaps? What puzzled the young Janeway most was the talking in unison as if each and every word was rehearsed. That did not sound natural. Nobody rehearsed ordinary speech like that. Or could they be robots who had ran amok? Phoebe decided to contact B`Elanna Torres. She knew the woman as she had visited the farm with Kathryn quite a few times before and Kathryn was fond of B`Elanna.

Phoebe and B`Elanna agreed to meet at Torres` house that evening. Phoebe told B`Elanna what she thought after analyzing the tapped voices. Torres was impressed by the younger Janeway. In many ways Phoebe was like Kathryn, B`Elanna thought so she agreed to involve her in all their unofficial investigations. Peter Chakotay and the rest of the project members responsible for building the prototype of the space folding engine naturally accepted the younger Janeway into their group. She was quickly brought up to speed on what they had found out so far. DNA was found at Kathryn`s house but obviously hers but another set of prints were found which did not match anyone on Earth. Torres was able to hack into the central computer of the CIA to cross match the prints. Could they be dealing with an extra terrestrial being disguised as a human? How many were there? Where did they take Kathryn to?

 

That evening the small team of unofficial investigators decided to put their skills to use. B`Elanna and Harry Kim went online and searched for small aeroplanes for hire. They found a Cessna which had a crew complement of only four people so the following day Tom Paris, Annika Hansen, B`Elanna Torres and Tyrel Tuvok brought the craft to one of NASA`s hangar. They quickly and efficiently modified the plane. They took off the seats and redecorated it. Torres and Hansen fitted devices only they knew about. Something they called a transporter. It was a powerful light beam which could in theory move objects from place to place. Of course their gadgets were untested but the team decided to fit them anyway. More gadgets were fitted in while Peter Chakotay updated the group of the formal investigator finding which remained very little. It worried him greatly that if Kathryn was indeed taken by extra terrestrial aliens then she may well be far out of their reach but he decided to keep his fears to himself as he did not want to discourage the team. Finally after only three hours Hansen decided to be the guinea pig for the transporter trial.

 

In the middle of the night Hansen stood in a dark corner of the hangar, out of reach of the small plane. Torres used infrared rays to locate Hansen`s body heat. Then she punched in some codes to the plane`s computer and a bright beam of light was released from the plane`s nose. The radiation pierced through the solid wall for a few seconds then Torres punched a button to turn the beam off.

 

Hansen stood in the corner unaware of what would become of her in the next few seconds but she realized that if she died or get irradiated it did not matter. She was a scientist. The truth which she did not want to admit even to herself, however, was that she would do anything for Kathryn Janeway, a woman who recommended her to the bosses and had got her into the project, something she had always want to do. That was the second secret but the main one was that she felt very strongly for Kathryn Janeway. Annika did not want to say the word "love" in case it was not reciprocated by the older woman. The woman who was now missing. 

 

Suddenly Annika felt herself disoriented then found herself standing in the corner of the small craft. The wall she was leaning against was absent so she lost her balance and fell to the floor. The whole group cheered and hugged each other while Annika smiled a small smile, in fact it was only a tiny upward curl at the corners of her lips, but it was a smile nevertheless. 

_"Well, now we just have to get you tested to see how much radiation you absorbed."_ Tom Paris said.

" _I feel fine. We should be heading towards the Amazon rain forest to begin our search."_ Hansen blurted out.

" _Oh? Why the Amazon?"_ Tyrel Tuvok wanted to know because in all their excitement the team had forgotten to talk about the areas they should concentrate their search.

" _I do not know but it seems like the most likely place to hide if these people have a large craft they will want to conceal it in the jungle."_

 

Everybody agreed that they should search in the Amazon rain forest in Brazil. B`Elanna was confident that her modified GPS gadget will guide them to the correct coordinates.

 

 

Phoebe returned to her mother`s house at 3 o`clock in the morning. She found her sitting on the living room couch next to the telephone. She did not want to leave Gretchen alone that night so Phoebe stayed overnight and urged her mother to eat and drink. Unfortunately Phoebe`s culinary abilities were limited to frying eggs, making toast and coffee. Gretchen graciously accepted her daughter`s offering even though she did not feel like ingesting any food. Phoebe got herself a cup of coffee and sat next to her mother and explained where she had been. Phoebe was advised by the group to leave out some details when explaining to her mother. They did not want to cause the older Janeway more grief by giving her false hope.


	4. The search

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Torres and company search for their colleague in the jungle. The Cyborgs follow some sort of directive to conceal themselves from primitive species.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More warning in case you missed the tags and archive warning: This chapter talks about mutilations and very unpleasant stuff, so be warned.Things will get  
> better, i promise.

The small group of engineers sat in the small cramped plane. They had informed their other friend, Dr Lewis Zimmerman, of Kathryn`s disappearance and their rescue efforts. Annika and Torres sent him the DNA samples found in Janeway`s house for further analysis. It was all done in secrecy because Torres had an inherent hatred for the police. She had lost her mother, Miral,  when she was fifteen years old and was raised by her grandmother. Miral died after she committed suicide, dejected and miserable after her husband John Torres divorced her. John and Miral had been fighting for as long as B`Elanna could remember. Every time Miral called the police for help, that she was being assaulted by her husband, the police seemed to take their time. When they arrived at the Torres` residence they would dismiss her claims and told her to talk to her husband and things would be fine. Young B`Elanna grew hatred for the police and became fiercely protective of her mother. When her mother died, Torres vowed to be the best daughter her mother would have been proud of. She worked hard to make her life better. She became an engineer and developed gadgets no one had heard of. It was one of her `out of this world` gadgets, in Kathryn Janeway`s words, that brought the two women to know each other. It was Janeway and Torres` unconventional ideas which led to building the space folding engine. The others in the group were hand picked by both of them. 

 

 After completing the pre flight checks the small group of amateur investigators started off at 8 o`clock in the evening. Soon they were airborne and heading south. Annika fidgeted with her fingers as she tried to find a comfortable place to sit. Currently she was sitting between Peter Chakotay and Harry Kim. Tyrel looked at her and raised an eye brow causing Annika to want to explain her behaviour.

" _I...do not feel comfortable sitting between two men."_

 _"Oh?_ _Why is that, i don`t bite."_ Chakotay said, his voice had dropped down a notch.

" _I don`t bite either..."_ Kim chipped in cheerfully causing Annika to sigh and moved so that she sat next to Torres.

" _Come and sit here, Annika. Men are pigs. See, i`ve got mine over there, so you`ll be safe sitting by my side."_ Torres pointed at Tom Paris who was piloting the craft.

 _"Hey! Torres, men aren`t pigs, they`re from Mars and you know it."_ Tom chipped in from the cock pit.

" _Annika is not into men,Tom! It`s only fair to grant her wish for not wanting to sit between men and my brother over there has the hots for her. Stop it, Chakotay. She`s not into you. She`s into...someone else."_ Torres almost revealed her suspicion that Annika may have romantic feelings for their missing project leader. She recognized the looks the young blonde gave Janeway when she thought nobody would see her. She too felt a connection between herself and the redhead.

 _"Yeah, i`ve heard that there`s a study which shows that all women are either lesbians or bisexual."_ Tom said.

" _Are you a lesbian, Annika?"_ Harry decided to just cut to the chase causing Annika to raise an eye brow.

" _No, i am American."Would you like to see my passport?"_ Annika said evenly.

_"No, i don`t..i didn`t mean to say that. Do you...like men or women?"_

_"I do like people of all types. Is that not what we are supposed to do?"_ The whole group laughed good naturedly at their friend Harry. Even Tyrel, who rarely displayed any emotions, had crinkles around his eyes in a suspicious display of amusement.

" _Well, if you must know i would like to visit the island of Lesbos soon. I hear it is lovely this time of the year."_ Annika said.

 _"Can i go to Lesbos with you, then?"_ Harry asked hopefully.

 _"Listen, Harry, Annika is not into either of you guys. So stop harassing her!"_ B`Elanna felt the need to protect her friend.

 

Annika and Tyrel sighed in unison. The two were the quiet ones in the group. They normally did not like to engage in frivolous activities or irrelevant discourse. They normally found them tedious but considering the long flight ahead of them and the close quarters, they both decided to join in to pass time. Deep down they were all afraid to talk about their mission. What if they found nothing? What if they were overpowered by these beings, whoever they were? Endless questions and doubts ran through the team`s heads but the bantering was therapeutic.

 

**IN THE "CARGO CONTAINERS" SOMEWHERE IN THE AMAZON RAIN FOREST**

Kathryn Janeway felt the white cotton button down long sleeved shirt she wore was clinging to her body with sweat and her hair was stuck to her head. It was very uncomfortable for the naturally neat Kathryn. She placed the half empty water bottle on the small green trolley. She stood up and looked at her captors wondering what would happen to her.

" _When we initially scanned your planet we thought there was nothing of importance but my drones re scanned this area here."_  The Queen pointed at a projected map of the world and a metallic finger rested on the United States. She enlarged the image and New York came into view. " _We found your organization. You seem to be heading in the right direction regarding space travel and we were interested in your machine."We require its use so we can get home."_

" _...where is your home?"_ Kathryn was curious to know.

" _We are not permitted to reveal the location of our home world. We can only tell you that it is seventy thousand light years away from our current location. Give us the machine and we will depart. Resist us and you will be terminated."_

" _Is that a threat? I don`t respond well to threats. If you want my engine i can arrange to have it sent to you but if you threaten me then i will not cooperate."_

 

Janeway found herself thrown to the floor violently and a heavy weight placed on her back. She was completely immobilized. She wanted to shout but discarded the idea as no one would hear her. So she lay on the cold floor and did not struggle. Finally the Queen ordered her drones to carry Janeway to another room next to her chamber. They laid her on a cold metallic examination table. Kathryn screamed when she saw one of the cyborgs stretch its hand towards her neck. Shiny snakelike tubules emerged from its knuckles and headed towards Janeway`s neck. A moment later Kathryn felt pain all over her body, a pain that she had never felt in her life before. The last thing she heard was the same words she heard in her house in Washington: Something about irrelevance, resistance and futility.

" _We have succeeded in acquiring the knowledge we wished. This being is fascinating. It has a wealth of knowledge stored in its large part of the brain, the cerebrum. Now when this organism awakens we will escort it to Washington where it will acquire the working prototype of the engine."You may go, i will call you when your services will be required._ The Queen told her cyborgs. She looked down at the injured human, lying unconscious on the examination table, and smiled triumphantly. Blood and other fluids were all over the table and Janeway was covered with a white sheet. The Queen decided to experiment on the very first human she had come across so she had ordered her drones to cut off Janeway`s breasts for further study. She considered mutilating her genitals but changed her mind about it. The puny human looked very frail and the Queen feared that she may not make it alive to give her the engine so she held back on the experimentation. To speed Kathryn`s recovery, the Queen had injected the unconscious woman with something from her fist through two tubules.

A few hours later Janeway`s eyes fluttered and opened weakly. She seemed confused at first then the memory of her kidnap returned to her. Kathryn hoped it was all a bad dream, that she would wake up in her bed on a nice lazy Sunday mornign but soon it became apparent that it was real when she attempted to move her arms. Excruciating pain shot through her arms radiating to her chest and breasts. When she carefully looked at her chest it seemed flat. Then she looked on the floor to find blood all around her. Was she dead? She wondered. Then she saw the being standing at the foot of the table examining something in a jar.

" _What do you call these?"_ The Queen asked with genuine scientific curiosity as she placed the jar at different angles to obtain a clear view.

_"What have you done to me? Am i dead? Is this an afterlife? You cut off my breasts and yet i have healed so quickly. How is that possible?"_

" _Our gift to you. From now on you will not injure easily, your pain tolerance is enhanced and you will regenerate quickly when injured. I have placed nano machines in your systems. They will repair you."_  

 _"I don`t know what to say."_ Janeway said sarcastically. She did not feel benevolent for someone who has abused her to the highest degree. She did not believe that the Queen picked on her sarcasm.

" _A thank you will suffice."_   The Queen tilted her head in gratitude while Janeway looked at her incredulously. 

 

During night fall two cyborgs roughly dragged Janeway into the propulsion lab in Washington, D.C. They took the space folding prototype engine and disappeared again only to reappear high above the city in a sort of a flying craft. Within seconds they arrived back in the Amazon rain forest where the cargo containers were placed. Janeway had a quick view of them and she decided that they were not cargo containers but advancedcube shaped space ships. 

The cyborgs left Janeway in the Queen`s chamber and went to incorporate the drive into their propulsion systems. The Queen was not in her chamber, it seemed to Janeway but soon she realized that she was, in fact, in the room. She was sleeping but Kathryn found that she "slept" upright in a standing position. Kathryn had heard of weird things in her life but this was beyond her comprehension. She did not know what to make of things. She sat on the floor, still covered by the white sheet as her clothes were too soiled to be worn.

 

**IN THE SMALL ENHANCED CRAFT**

At around 11 o` clock at night the craft circled a particularly densely vegetated area. The specialized radar beeped wildly indicating that there was something in the vicinity. As the plane circled the area for the fourth time Torres` infrared scanner picked up a lot of things which emitted infrared radiation. She sighed when she thought that it could be any one of the thousands of animals walking about in the dark. The fact that there was a river nearby made the search even more difficult as animals gathered here for a drink and possibly to hunt. That raised new concerns, or rather brought a new concern into perspective. What if Janeway was attacked by wild animals? How do they even know that she would be in this particular area?

 

As Torres was brooding over their mission, that it may fail before it had even began, something on the scanner caught her attention. A distinct shape of a motionless torso in red was seen. Two thinner red figures seemingly attached to the torso and jutting out of it on either side like tree branches, moved actively in an up and down direction. Looking further down there seemed to be a similar pair of `branches.` Could they have found...? Torres thought she was imagining things. She looked around but it seemed none of her fellow investigators saw her discovery. So Torres decided to look again. She concluded that it was definitely a human figure down there. It was either lying down and flapping its arms? Or struggling with something.

 

B`Elanna`s interest was piqued and told everyone. They all came to look at the small screen and agreed with her that it was definitely a human or it could easily be a primate or a sloth. Annika stood up to peer through the window. It was useless to look through the window in a dense jungle on a moonless night. She waited a few moments until her eyes had adjusted to the darkness then tried again but without much success. Chakotay told Tom to land the plane and turn off all the lights in the plane but he should keep the scanning equipment running.

 

The plane landed in a clearing and Chakotay told everybody to start the search. " _Ready!"_ They said in unison and Annika was first to emerge. She wore a pair of black cargo trousers with a multitude of pockets, a black turtle neck top and a pair of combat boots and carried a back pack with first aid kit and some sandwiches and water. Chakotay handed her a pistol. He gave the others who were also dressed as Annika a gun each. Torres wondered where her `brother` Chakotay got the guns from but she felt that was not the time and place to ask questions as time was running out.

 

Tyrel walked in front of the group clearing the dense vegetation to pave the way for the others. Phoebe and Tom remained in the small plane and held the radio. Tyrel was to update them of their progress and intervene if needed. The group searched for close to two hours when Annika had wandered off from the group because something had caught her attention. A large clearing, an area probably as big as a football ground was full of fallen trees. The grass and the trees in the area were all flattened as if something big and heavy fell on the area with great impact. Annika estimated that the object may well be made of metal and probably as large as a small block of flats. She surmised that something of that nature could only be of alien origin, probably a space ship of some kind. As she walked around the area scanning with her handheld scanner she heard a whimper coming from one of the trees nearby. Annika took out her mobile phone from one of her trouser pockets and spoke into it.

 

Soon the group joined the blonde in the large clearing. They flicked their head lamps and wrist lights to try and locate the exact position where the voices were coming from. Tyrel walked cautiously towards the area where the groaning sounds came from with his machete raised in preparation for combat if required. As he approached he could distinctly tell it was a female voice.

 

" _Who are you? Don`t come any closer, i`m armed."_ The feeble but unmistakable and familiar voice which still held a distinct whip of authority said from somewhere behind a large fallen tree.

 _"KATHRYN!!! YOU`RE ALIVE._ Annika and Torres shouted in unison.

 


	5. On the exam table

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It was a delirious, fierce and spontaneous, very pleasant kiss which both women seemed to need at that very moment. It was as if they had come home. Home to each other."

Kathryn Janeway lay down on the cold, hard metal examination. She felt very little pain, very little emotion. She was almost detached from the whole episode.

" _So what else have you taken from my body? Ar you going to make a new enhanced Kathryn Janeway? Trust me if i say that i`m not the best human specimen. There are far more good looking people out there than i am, more brainy people. You`ve got it all wrong."_ Janeway said to the Queen who had placed the jar containing mammary tissue on a nearby table. She now held another jar containing something resembling a uterus. That was when Janeway finally broke down. She cried for the breasts she had lost, the space folding engine proto type and now she just found out that she had no uterus. 

" _This reproductive organ of yours will provide vital information on how humans reproduce. I believe it will be a fascinating lesson. Do all female humans have it?"_

" _You know, you could have just asked for an explanation in human biology and i could have told you."_ Janeway said, not that it mattered now and she knew that there was no way this being was going to give her back the organs, even though she now realized how advanced these machine people were and that they could do it if they wanted to. It caused her great grief just to see the Cyborg leader, with a sadistic smile on her face, play with her precious organs in a jar. In all her grief Kathryn felt hot tears run down her cheeks then the uncontrolled sobbing began. Kathryn let herself go.

 

Janeway was engulfed in a green beam of light. She closed her eyes, trying to will everything she had recently experienced out of existence. When she opened her eyes she found herself, not in the now familiar green interior of an alien ship, but still on the exam table in some sort of field outdoors. She looked around and saw a tree next to her. Then more trees came into view when she turned her head around. There were trees and grass everywhere she looked. There was fresh scents of flowers, some familiar while others were exotic. Kathryn knew this was real when she felt a cold breeze felt on her skin. She was still lying on the examination table, only covered with the white sheet, now stained with her blood. The sheet was hard and uncomfortable caused by the congealed blood on the material. She attempted to sit up and was surprised that she was capable of doing this with ease. She wondered what the monsters had done to her, was she still Kathryn Janeway? Or had she been turned into something else? After going through the harrowing and terrifying experience in the alien ship, should she be at least scared to death by now?

 

It was getting dark. If this was a jungle, she did not know where exactly but it was apparent to her that it was a jungle. Birds song and strange animal sounds were heard far away from her location. Kathryn had to think fast. She should find a river and at least wash herself a bit and attempt to locate a village. She felt emotionally drained but she still had quite a bit of physical strength to navigate her way through the jungle. She looked down at her sheet with disgust. Ideally she should throw it away but then she kept it for two reasons. She had nothing else to wear, the monsters had taken her clothes away, and perhaps the DNA trapped on the soiled sheet will reveal something about her captors if and when she gave it to investigators when she got home. Home. What was her mother doing? Her sister? Did they even know that she had gone missing? Her colleagues at NASA might have known by now since she failed to turn up at work but what then? Were the police involved? Janeway felt fresh tears, fat ones, stream endlessly down her face. She let herself go and sobbed her heart out. She left the "bed" and walked to investigate her surrounding. Luckily she heard the sounds of running water, probably a stream or river. So she walked towards the direction of the sound until she reached a stream. Janeway looked around, it was dark and luckily a clear night. Even if it was a moonless night the multitude of stars had come out to play. She was able to navigate her way to the river or stream. Finally she reached the water which turned out to be a stream. Kathryn did not want to think of the animals which came to this very stream at this time of night. She took the sheet off and placed it on a nearby rock. She reached down at the water and started to wash herself as quickly as she could. Then she realized that she had to protect herself from being anyone`s potential dinner so she wallowed in the mud and covered herself with as much mud as possible. That would disguise her scent or at the very least conceal her by providing some sort of camouflage effect.

 

 Janeway took the soiled sheet and folded it the best she could and made her way back to her camp site where her examination table turned into bed waited, she laid on it and closed her eyes. Sometime had passed. Janeway knew that it may have been some hours judging by the mud on her skin which had mostly dried. She considered going back to the stream to get more mud but changed her mind when she thought she heard something. An engine sound, possible a small air plane. Kathryn wondered who might it be? Then she thought of staying where she was perhaps the pilot would see her. The sound was soon gone but she figured that the plane had landed probably on the other side of the stream. On the other hand she may have hallucinated. She dared not think of a rescue. She did not want to raise her hopes. Hope in what, exactly? Kathryn felt her little voice ask.

 

Kathryn laid on the exam table and gazed at the beautiful stars which she could name all the constellations she could see from where she lay. Her mind went to happier times. She imagined laying there with her secret love, someone she refused to admit being attracted to even to herself. Someone whom she worked with, a brilliant young blonde woman. Crunching of leaves nearby brought her out of her reverie. She held her breath wondering if it was an animal and what she should do. Play dead? Then she heard a distinct human voice talking in English. Soon a few voices were heard and they were all heading towards her location. Janeway was happy and she panicked at the same time.

 _"Who are you?_   _Don`t come any closer._   _i_ ` _m armed."_ Janeway said with all the energy she could muster.

 

A few seconds later a bright light, a few bright lights invaded her eyes as the unmistakable and familiar voices were heard and they all surrounded her. Annika gasped at the state Kathryn was in. She was covered in mud and her hair was matted and clung to her scalp. Her eyes were red and puffy.

 _"Oh, Kathryn, my Kathryn."_ Annika realized that she had let the cat out of the bag by addressing Kathryn as "her Kathryn" but she did not care. She hugged the mud coated Kathryn fiercely, B`Elanna felt she was intruding on some sort of ritual between the two. She stood from a short distance and watched the women, smiling. The embrace went on for a while as Annika, the woman who rarely showed affections kissed the muddy woman on the exam table fiercely that B`Elanna thought she saw tongues but she may only had imagined it. She snorted and looked at the men. Peter Chakotay, Tyrel and Harry focused their search lights on the surrounding. There was more to investigate in this area and they headed off in that direction, leaving Torres to guard the emotionally delirious women on the alien exam table.

 _"Oh, Annika, my Annika. You came for me? Is it really you?"_ Janeway sobbed as she felt warm arms embrace her fiercely and gently. She felt her own muddy arms go round the tall blonde to embrace her fiercely. Then it all felt natural to kiss the woman back. It was a delirious, fierce and spontaneous pleasant kiss which both women seemed to need at that very moment. It was as if they had come home. Home to each other.

 

THE END.

 


End file.
